Californian Wildfires Threaten Cannabis Harvest

While the scope of these life altering tragedies is still being calculated, cannabis farmers have begun to assess the toll on this year’s outdoor harvest and the outlook is grim.

On various cultivation websites, the state’s cannabis farmers are already decrying crops being tainted by the smell of smoke, which weed consumers across the county will readily be able to detect. California grows an estimated 13 million pounds of pot annually and four of every five pounds is shipped to other states. Growers, in an attempt to embrace the catastrophe, have be christening various strains of the 2017 harvest with names like “campfire pot,” “hickory kush,” and “beef jerky.”

In addition to unsavory odors, cannabis exposed to smoke and ash is more vulnerable to disease, which can result in high levels of molds, mildews, and fungus, creating potential health risks such as lung infections. Medical cannabis users with preexisting conditions such as lung or cardiovascular disease should be particularly careful about the condition of their cannabis.

Many farmers are now predicting that pot tainted by the scent of fire will lose value due to poor flavor and the uncertainty of the plant’s health, according Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Cannabis Association.

According to the 2016 Sonoma County Crop Report, between 3,000 and 9,000 medical cannabis farmers work in Sonoma County — where the fires hit hard and more than 150 people are missing. Sonoma County revenues from marijuana are unknown but likely total in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.